Marker Of Identity
A ball cap theory
Me and Mrs. Bailey are scheduling a trip to the Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville. So I’ll certainly need a hat appropriate for horse racing in Kentucky!
That of course means you have to suffer through another post about hats!
Through the years I’ve read lots of theories about why men in the United States stopped wearing actual adult hats, and started wearing little boy ball caps instead.
President Kennedy gets blamed from time to time. Apparently he was the first modern (and good looking) President who didn’t favor hats.
The rise of the automobile gets blamed a lot. And it’s true, big full brim hats and cars don’t get along all that well.
I’ve got to wonder though, if tribalism doesn’t play into it pretty heavily as well?
At least when considering my own, rather extensive, collection of these ball caps that I so frequently like to disparage.
All of my ball caps, trucker caps, dad caps, whatever you like to call them; well, they all communicate a message through the words or graphics they contain.
Heck one of them even communicates a message without any words or images at all, simply through color. The colors of a high school’s athletic teams.
But they all communicate identity, belonging, or an interest.
Most of mine, at my present stage in life are Masonic in nature, so communicate to anyone who cares to look, my participation within that fraternity. I stayed in the world’s finest hotel some years ago, and they had their logo ball caps in the honor bar, so you bet I snagged one of those to remember that trip.
I’ve got two ball caps that communicate secretly. They have really obscure symbolism. Anyone who happens to be a part of the community they represent would recognize me as a fellow traveler at a glance. To those outside of that particular community, they would just look like interesting images.
I bought my ‘Pretend Cowboy’ hat recently, for my upcoming visit to the Montana Dude Ranch, and I ordered a Kentucky Colonel ball cap just the other day because I’ll be attending a Colonel’s event soon.
I’ve got lots more, but you get the idea.
I have to wonder, is one of the reasons that so many men wear ball caps today because of a desire to communicate identity? To mark oneself as a member of a group?
And if so, that leads me to my really big questions. Why is doing so important to us? If we pride ourselves on our individualism, why do so many of us gravitate to wearing hats that clearly communicate a group we identify with or a common interest we share? Is belonging more important to us than individuality, even if we don’t admit it to ourselves?
My most usual Baseball Cap is my American Legion Cap. Most often, someone thanks me for my Military Service (when I can respond that my wife doesn't want me to say "It was only 37 years")! Once or twice, when I ask a Waiter for my Bill at a Restaurant, I'm told "someone already paid your Bill"!
"If we pride ourselves on our individualism, why do so many of us gravitate to wearing hats that clearly communicate a group we identify with or a common interest we share? Is belonging more important to us than individuality, even if we don’t admit it to ourselves?"
With very few abberations, human beings are communal. I believe that this is a trait we inherited from our Creator, a being who craved relationships so much that hHe created a world and populated it with beings who had the choice on whether or not to have a relationship with Him. We, being created in His image, have an inate need to be in groups and safety often dictates that the bigger that group is the safer it is. That's my Arkansas hillbilly viewpoint.